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Friday, October 10, 2014

5 Things 'The Walking Dead' Season 5 Needs To Do

Season 4 of AMC’s hit zombie drama The WalkingDead is easily the best in the show’s history, especially the eight
episodes that comprise the second half (okay, the first seven of those, I
wasn’t super impressed by season finale, at least not until the very end). I
give a lot of this credit, rightly or wrongly, to new showrunner Scott
Gimple—these episodes in particular, and their narrative approach, bear the
trademarks of those he wrote before landing this gig—and I’m more excited and
interested in seeing what happens to these characters than I’ve ever been.

Moving into season 5, which debuts this Sunday, October 12,
the producers are saying all of the right things, so it doesn’t appear that
these strides forward are a fluke, or that the show will fall back into the
mundane and tedious digressions and needlessly elongated story arcs that have
plagued it since the beginning. That said, we have some idea of what the show
needs to do moving forward in order to continue to be successful in the future.
It’s been said they have loose plans out to a 12th season, but we’re not
looking that far ahead. We’re just thinking about what the The Walking
Dead needs to do in season 5 to continue to make this a show we want
to watch, not just begrudgingly tune into because we love the comics and have a
swarm of zombies tattooed up our arms.

Keep Developing Characters

Season 4 of The Walking Dead did a number
of things well, or at least much better than it has in the past. Chief among
these was that it developed the characters more than ever before, especially
over the course of the second half. So many characters that had been stagnant
grew and changed exponentially, and this is something that needs to continue as
the show finally begins to live up to its potential. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) is
finally becoming the character fans of the comics know he can be; Beth (Emily
Kinney) transformed from an annoying kid sister into an interesting human being
in her own right, one with feeling and thoughts and emotions and all the
complexities that make up an actual person; and then there’s Michonne (Danai
Gurira). She’s been a functional mute for most of the time we’ve known her, as
if glaring and never saying a word, even when it could prevent bloodshed, gave
her personality. After the annual mid-season hiatus, however, she’s also well
on her way to becoming a well-rounded character. W saw that stone-faced façade crack
and it was profoundly moving, like the moment where she breaks down when she
finally finds Rick and Carl (Chandler Riggs). The old adage is that still
waters run deep, but you still have to show something, anything, in order to
illustrate that.

Keep Rick Decisive

In the comics, Rick is the leader because he’s the only one
willing to make the hard choices that often confront the group, the kind where
neither option is particularly pleasant, and neither road is one you actually
want to go down. In the show, however, he’s been a wishy
washy mess, steadfast in his refusal to make any decision at all. Confronted
with a situation that demands action, he, instead, has endlessly debated the
options, back and forth in a repetitive way, often with disastrous results, and
worse, for viewers anyway, completely wasting entire episodes. Season 2 and
season 3 were horrible about this, with entire weeks where there was no
movement whatsoever. Season 4, especially the later episodes, saw him start to
resemble the Rick from the source material, especially in that final moment
when they’re locked in the train car and he doesn’t have any other thought or
fear other than, “They’re screwing with the wrong people.” Season 5 will only
benefit from Rick continuing down this trail, and given what we’ve heard about
the early scenes in the upcoming episodes, it sounds like that’s the way he’s
going.

Don’t Feel The Need To Check In With Everyone Every Week

As an ensemble, The Walking Dead has a
large cast, one that is constantly growing as they encounter new survivors, as
well as one that is continually in flux as people die off. While that means
there are a lot of stories, that doesn’t mean every one intersects. Often they
do, as things impact the entire group, and it makes sense for everyone to be
involved, but not always. All of these people have their own personalities and
lives within the group. Part of what makes the final eight episodes of season 4
so strong is that the writers and producers didn’t always feel obligated to
include every last person in every last episode. One of the best weeks,
“Still,” features two people, Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Beth (Emily Kinney),
and no one else. This allows space for a story to develop and for the actors to
do some really good work, letting the characters grow and explore. You don’t
need to know what each character is up to at every moment, and this ability to
let storylines lie for a while increases interest and tension. Not to mention
it prevents them from overexposing any one character, so you don’t get sick of
them. This also allows for a single, smaller storyline to play out in a more
natural state. Minor asides won’t get dragged out over multiple episodes when
one would easily suffice. If it fits with a storyline, fine, by all means check
in with everyone, but you don’t need to force it where it doesn’t fit. Lots of
great shows with ensemble casts go a week without everyone showing up, just
look at The Wire and Game of Thrones, and
it looks like The Walking Dead is finally learning this.

Focus On The Characters Rather Than The Action/Zombies

Zombies, on their own, are boring. They’ve been done, to
death, and there’s very little to do with them that that is in any way
original. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a place, or that they can’t be used
well, but they work best in the background, as part of the landscape, as a
larger, looming threat whose presence colors everything else. Think of it as a
character like Thanos in the Marvel Universe, he doesn’t need to be in every
last scene in order to impact the action; his presence is always felt by the
characters and has an effect on every decision they make. What is really
interesting, and what is going to keep you engaged, is how the characters,
collectively as well as on an individual level, react and respond to this
threat and this transformed world. Human on human conflict is much more
interesting—you already know how the walkers are going to respond, but their
presence can and should serve to heighten that tension, giving every situation,
every choice, every encounter an increased level of intensity and importance
because the consequences are now so dire. They’re best as an escalating factor,
not as the primary focus.

There Has To Be Hope

The Walking
Dead can be bleak, violent, and grim, and that’s what fans want, but
within that, there has to be something more. There has to be something that
drives the survivors on, something hopeful, or else why the hell do they even
bother? It doesn’t to be much, but there needs to be at least a faint glimmer
every once in a while. Whether that’s getting Eugene to Washington DC, getting
the whole group back together, finding a place to live, or even something as
small and vague as carving out a life in this chaotic world, even if it looms
far off in the distance, there needs to be a ray on occasion. Season 4 was far
better about this than it had been—season 3 was notoriously oppressive in its
utter hopelessness—and season 5, at least according to what producers have
said, looks to continue this.